The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence, Spiritual Intelligence, and Students' Academic Achievement

World of Sciences Journal
ISSN: 2307-3071
www.engineerspress.com
Year: 2013
Volume: 1
Issue: 8
Pages: 45-51
The Relationship between Emotional

Intelligence, Spiritual Intelligence, and
Students Academic Achievement
Arbabisarjou, Azizollah, PhD, Assistant Professor, Faculty member, Health Promotion Research Center,
Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran. Email:arbabisarjou2007@gmail.com
Raghib, MaedeSadat; MA Educational Management, Department of educational sciences and
Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. Email: m.raghib@yahoo.com
Rezazade, Shekofe-al- Sadat; MA in Educational Planning, Department of educational sciences and
psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Siadat,Sayyed Ali( Corresponding author), Associate Professor, Faculty member, School of Educational
Sciences and Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran, Email: s.a.siadat@edu.ui.ac.ir
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to study the relationship among emotional

intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and academic achievement of students in
the University of Isfahan. The statistical population of this study includes all
of the students in this university. A sample of 250 students has been
selected through random cluster sampling. The Spiritual Intelligence and
Self-report Inventory and Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire have
been used for collecting data. The results of this study revealed that there is
a significant positive relationship between students achievement with their
emotional and spiritual intelligence. As the results indicated, growth and
promotion of the emotional and spiritual intelligence can considered as
methods for improving students academic achievement. This can be
promoted and revolted through a rich educational environment and leads to
better educational performance in the academic environments.
KEYWORDS:
Emotional Intelligence, Spiritual Intelligence, Academic Achievement,
Students.
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Corresponding author: Dr. Sayyed , Ali Siadat, PhD, Associate professor,

Email: s.a.siadat@edu.ui.ac.ir
46
1. Introuduction
It is necessary to collect information about outcomes of every educational system and its effective factors for
promoting educational quality. Evaluation of the important educational aspects is a basis for valuating educational
institutes (Leenaars and Laster, 2006). Educational achievement evaluation can be considered as one of the most
important educational evaluations.
tions. Continuous evaluation of the students educational achievement during their
academic period and examining its effective factors is one of the critical and inevitable bases of educational system
improvement especially in the universities. It plays an important role in developing better educational plans,
prompting educational quality, and finally correcting and improving academic managers efficiency (Bakhtiarpor,
2009).
Students academic performance in different fields, levels, and universities is influenced by several personal and
educational factors. Determining appropriate criterions and factors is one of the potential research areas. Furnham,
Chamorro, and Premuzic (2004), Gange and St Pere (2002), Lubinski (2004), Vigil
Vigil-colet
colet and Morales-Vives
Morales
(2005)
are the authors who are active in this field. The scores of intelligence and academic achievement are one of the
important measures that have been used as indicators for predicting students future conditions by several authors
(Gange and St Pere, 2002).
Intelligence is one of the main characteristics that results in individual differences among peoples. This has been
attended by humans from many years ago (Bakhtiarpor, 2009). Although study about intelligence has focused on its
cognitive aspects such
ch as memory, problem
problem-solving,
solving, and thought, but nowadays its non
non-cognitive aspects such as
emotional, social, and spiritual ability have been attended by authors. On the other hand, it can be used for
predicting individual abilities for success and compati
compatibility in the life (Heien, 2007).
The role of intelligence tests in predicting academic performance that the effective psychosocial and mental sources
has an important role in predicting academic achievement especially in the higher academic levels (Fur
(Furnham,
Chamorro, and Premuzic, 2004).
Wiggles Worth (2004) introduced four types of intelligence including physical, cognitive, emotional, and spiritual
intelligences. He believes that the child find control on his body in the beginning of his life. In other
othe words, first
concentration of mankind is his physical intelligence and then his linguistic and perceptual skills will be developed.
Intelligence quotient refers to the analysis capability that can be used in many educational activities. When an
individuall seeks to develop his/her relationship with others, emotional intelligence will be introduced (Golman,
2000). With regard to the emotions and their appropriate application in the human relations, some issues have been
introduced as emotional intelligence such as understanding self and others personality, continence and domination
on the immediate expectations, empathy, positive use of the emotions in thoughts and cognition (Kooker, Shoultz,
and Codier, 2007).
With regard to different levels of intelligenc
intelligence,
e, it can be concluded that these levels have especial interaction with
each other. Everybody needs important and fundamental sections of emotional intelligence to starts his/her spiritual
growth successfully. Emotional self
self-awareness and empathy are the most
ost important basis for entering spiritual
intelligence. Nevertheless, beginning of the spiritual intelligence and its positive feedback results in improving
emotional intelligence skills and spiritual intelligence (Samadi, 2006).
2. Hypotheses development
H1: There is a significant positive relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement among
students of University of Isfahan.
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47
H2: There is a significant positive relationship between spiritual intelligence and academic achievement among
H3: There is a significant positive relationship between emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence am
among
3. Research methodology
This study is a descriptive research and its methodology is structural equation modeling. The statistical population of
this study includes all of the students at University of Isfahan. A sample
sample of 250 students has been selected through
random cluster sampling. In order to analyze the data and test the hypotheses, SPSS 15 and AMOS 18 have been
used.
Data-collection instrument
1Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (Short Form) : This questionnaire
questionnaire has been developed by
Petrides and Furnham (2006).
2-
The Spiritual Intelligence and Self-report

Self report Inventory: this scale has been developed by King (2007).
This scale has been validated by Raghib et al. (2010) in Iran and its Cronbach Alpha has
has been reported 0.87 among
250 students of University of Isfahan. Also the correlation coefficient between this scale and spiritual experience has
been reported 0.66. Also reliability of this scale has been reported by authors of this study 0.89.
4. Findings
Table 1 summarizes descriptive findings of the study about emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and
academic achievement.
Table 1: descriptive findings of the study about emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and academic
achievement
Variables
Minimum value Maximum value Range
Average
Emotional intelligence
78
200
122
142.47 23.95
Spiritual intelligence
25
89
64
61.41
13.34
Academic achievement
10
20
10
16.82
2.6
Standard deviation
The results of correlation coefficient test

tes have been presented in table 2.
Table 2: The results of correlation coefficient among emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and academic
achievement
Variables
10
11

48
1: critical thinking
2: individual meaning
0.32*
3: transactional consciousness
0.10
0.12*
4: consciousness development
0.14
0.33*
0.09
5: optimism
0.21*
0.22
0.003
0.007
0.02
0.05
0.03
0.09
0.36*
6: understanding emotions
7: controlling emotions
0.13
0.32*
0.20*
0.26*
0.05
0.06
8: social skills
0.03
0.05
0.21*
0.30*
0.20*
0.20*
9: emotional intelligence 0.17
0.43*
0.09
0.36*
0.48*
0.34*
0.49*
0.61*
10: spiritual intelligence
0.58*
0.44*
0.55*
0.15
0.19*
0.27*
0.14
0.64
0.26*
0.47*
0.37*
0.43*
0.28*
0.23*
0.33*
0.34*
0.41*
0.06
11: academic achievement

0.71* 1
0.56*
As indicated in the past sections, it is claimed in the first hypothesis of this study that there is a significant positive
relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement among students of University of Isfahan.
The results of table 2 show that the correlation coefficient between emotional intelligence and academic
achievement is 0.41. This shows that the there is a significant positive relationship between emotional intelligence
and academic achievement (p0.01).
0.01). The results indicated that the least correlation of the variables is between
understanding emotions and academic achievement (r: 0.23, p0.01).
p0.01). Also the results showed that there is a
significant
ficant positive relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement.
The second hypothesis of this study indicates that there is a significant positive relationship between spiritual
intelligence and academic achievement among students of University of Isfahan. The results of table 2 indicated that
the most correlation was observed between individual meaning and academic achievement (r: 0.47, p
p0.01). Also
the results indicated that there is a significant positive relationship between spiritual
spiritual intelligence and academic
achievement. The correlation between spiritual intelligence and academic achievement is 0.71 by which it can be
concluded that there is a significant positive relationship between spiritual intelligence and academic achievement.
achievem
Third hypothesis of our study indicates that there is a significant positive relationship between emotional
intelligence and spiritual intelligence among students of University of Isfahan. As the results of table 2 showed, the
correlation coefficient between spiritual intelligence and emotional intelligence is 0.46. Based on the results of table
2, the most correlation is between individual meaning and emotional intelligence (r: 0.43). Also the results revealed
that the correlation between controlling emotions and spiritual intelligence was observed 0.27 (p
(p0.05). Finally, the
results showed that the least significant correlation was observed between transactional consciousness and emotional
intelligence (r: 0.09).

49
5. Conclusion
As indicated across the study, the present study was aimed to examine the relationship among emotional
intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and academic achievement of the students of university of Isfahan. The results of
the first hypothesis are consistent with results of Salovey
Salovey and Mayer (2000). The relationship between emotional
intelligence and academic achievement was examined in the second hypothesis. The results of this hypothesis are
consistent with Wiggles worth (2004). The results of the study that has been done by Wiggles
Wig
worth (2004)
indicated that growth of the emotional intelligence is one of the most important factors that can be effective in the
educational performance improvement. The relationship between emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence
has been examined in the third hypothesis. The results of this hypothesis are consistent with the results of Zahra and
Marshall (2000). They found that spiritual intelligence can be an effective factor in the intelligence quotient and
emotional intelligence improvement.
ement. The reason is that these levels of intelligence are not sufficient for expressing
complexity of the individuals intelligence and expressing comprehensiveness of their emotions abilities. It is
possible to understand human intelligence through describing
describing spiritual intelligence and its accompaniment with
other levels of intelligence can leads to improve all of the human aspects. The religious conditions can be considered
as an important indicator of spiritual intelligence (Ghobari Bonab and Salimi, 2008).
20
Acknowledgement
The authors are thankful to Jahantigh,
Jahantigh Mozhgan, The manager of Skills lab center of Zahedan University of Medical
Sciences for providing the necessary facilities for the preparation of the paper.
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Assistant Professor, Dr. Azizollah, Arbabisarjou, RN,MSN, PhD, obtained his first
academic degree in 1997 in the Nursing management field. He joined as

51
faculty member to Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, IRAN. He received his doctorate from University of
Isfahan in field of Educational Administration in 2011.Currently, Serves School of Nursing and Midwifery and the
manager of Curriculum
riculum development in EDC. He has published numerous referred papers about patient teaching,
knowledge management, management and so on in ISI, Non-ISI
Non
and Scientific-professional
professional journals. Dr.
Arbabisarjou is teaching for Master students of Information Technology
Technology management, MBA and Educational
Administration. Also, he has conducted numerous consulting and research works for masters student and
colleagues.
Professor in Education, Dr. Seyyed Ali, Siadat, PhD and faculty member at University of
Isfahan. He has obtained his doctorate from United States of America. He is teaching for undergraduates and
postgraduates students ( Masters and PhD) about Educations principles, Educational Administration, Budgeting in
Education, Accounting in Education, Theory and concepts in educational administration, Knowledge Management,
special English for postgraduates candidates. He has published numerous referred papers about patient teaching,
knowledge management, management, education and so on in ISI, Non
Non-ISI and Scientific-professional
Scientific
journals. Dr.
Also, he has conducted numerous consulting and research works for masters student and colleagues and PhD
candidates.


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